Aggies zeroing in on new AD

COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M is narrowing in on an athletic director, and I’d expect Bill Byrne’s replacement to be named as early as next week.

Item 1 of Friday’s regents meeting reads, “Authorization for the President of Texas A&M University to take any and all action to identify a candidate; and negotiate and execute an employment agreement with such candidate as Texas A&M University’s Athletic Director.”

Byrne retired on May 8 with more than a year remaining on his contract, which A&M intends to pay off. He’s now serving as a special advisor to A&M president R. Bowen Loftin, and will do so through the end of August.

The Aggies officially exit the Big 12 after 16 years on Saturday, and enter the Southeastern Conference on Sunday. Within a few days of that, a new AD should be in place to guide the Aggies into the nation’s top football conference.

The search process has been remarkably quiet, but a bunch of sportswriters on vacation this time of year (it’s really the only time of year for college writers to take off) has likely helped the search committee in keeping things on the down low.

The lone name I heard, and that was early in the process, was Houston’s Mack Rhoades, but little has seeped out since. In any case, expect a new A&M AD to be in place soon.